Why the Vietnam ‘detour’ for US-bound Chinese goods hit a dead end

China tradeEconomyGlobal EconomyWhy the Vietnam ‘detour’ for US-bound Chinese goods hit a dead endIs finding another Hanoi haven possible, or would trying be a fool’s errand for Chinese firms looking to get the jump on Trump and evade tariffs?6-MIN READ6-MIN9 ListenFrank Chenin ShanghaiandRalph Jenningsin Hong KongPublished: 6:00am, 25 Jun 2026Updated: 6:31am, 25 Jun 2026Nearly a decade ago, one of China’s largest textile exporters concocted a plan to hedge against trade barriers championed by US President Donald Trump during his first term.Its owners were convinced that moving their primary production base from China’s east coast to Vietnam would be a permanent workaround – bypassing complex supply-chain pitfalls by hunkering down in a tariff lowland and continuing to stock Walmart shelves with socks and towels.Trying to get the jump on Trump in 2017, from Vietnam’s Hung Yen province, …

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8 takeaways from the US-Iran war

War and conflictOpinionWorld OpinionOpinionZhou Bo8 takeaways from the US-Iran warFrom the rise of devastating asymmetric warfare to the crumbling of the US maritime hegemony and alliances, the war offers food for thought3-MIN READ3-MIN2 ListenZhou BoSenior Colonel Zhou Bo (ret) is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University and a China Forum expert.

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These 3 Brazilian sisters have lived to over 100. Scientists want to know their secret

ScienceWorldAmericasThese 3 Brazilian sisters have lived to over 100. Scientists want to know their secretThe oldest living trio of siblings in the world could provide clues into the role played by genetic versus lifestyle factors2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 5:20am, 25 Jun 2026What is the secret ⁠to a long life?

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With no team in World Cup, China fans root for Ronaldo, Messi … and a referee

United StatesChinaWith no team in World Cup, China fans root for Ronaldo, Messi … and a refereeChinese team has not played in tournament for 24 years, so supporters follow world’s two most famous players and a strict mainland official6-MIN READ6-MIN3 ListenLucy Quagginin New YorkandYuanyue Dangin WashingtonPublished: 5:13am, 25 Jun 2026Updated: 9:11am, 25 Jun 2026On a sunny day in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighbourhood, punters piled into the fifth floor of Time Out Market to Portugal House – part food court, part bar, full-blown World Cup party.The room was awash with Portuguese team jerseys, filled with fans sipping cold beer and soft drinks, proudly singing Portugal’s national anthem before their match against DR Congo.“Hopefully, one day I can sing the Chinese national song in a World Cup stadium,” said Zhai Yibo, a 20-year-old Chinese student studying in London who was watching the game in…

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Brazil detains Spanish woman for racism, in latest high-profile arrest

Racism and other prejudiceWorldAmericasBrazil detains Spanish woman for racism, in latest high-profile arrestThe country has some of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America, with penalties ranging from two to five years in prison and a fine2-MIN READ2-MIN1 ListenAssociated PressPublished: 2:35am, 25 Jun 2026Brazil’s federal police detained a Spanish citizen in Sao Paulo’s international Guarulhos airport for racism on Wednesday, the latest in a series of high-profile arrests of foreign tourists on similar grounds.Brazil has some of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America.

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Trump’s name is gone from the Kennedy Centre. Why is the tarp still up?

Donald TrumpWorldUnited States & CanadaTrump’s name is gone from the Kennedy Centre. Why is the tarp still up?A US judge has asked the venue’s board, which is stacked with loyalists to the president, to explain why the facade remains covered1-MIN READ1-MIN ListenAgence France-PressePublished: 2:02am, 25 Jun 2026A US federal judge asked on Wednesday for an explanation for why a tarpaulin continues to cover the facade of the Kennedy Centre where President Donald Trump’s name was recently removed.District Judge Christopher Cooper gave the board of trustees of the performing arts venue until the end of July to explain “the purpose for and status of the tarp and scaffolding that defendants have erected on the front portico of the centre”.Trump’s name was removed from the Kennedy Centre on the orders of Cooper earlier this month but the area where it was taken down remains covered by a white …

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French woman rescued in Pakistan after husband allegedly held her captive for 12 years

PakistanAsiaSouth AsiaFrench woman rescued in Pakistan after husband allegedly held her captive for 12 yearsSylvie Yasmina was rescued after one of her five children managed to leave the house and get to a nearby police station2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenAssociated PressPublished: 1:44am, 25 Jun 2026Updated: 1:51am, 25 Jun 2026Pakistan police said on Wednesday that they had rescued a French woman and her five children after she told authorities she had been held captive by her husband for more than a decade and subjected to years of domestic abuse in the country’s northwest.The woman, identified as 54-year-old Sylvie Yasmina, was rescued earlier this week from a mud-brick home in Bara, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, district police chief Waqar Ahmad said.He said Yasmina’s husband, Ahmad Khan, had been arrested and investigations are under way.Domestic violence r…

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Hong Kong national security police arrest 2 bookshop owners over alleged sedition

Hong Kong national security lawHong KongLaw and CrimeHong Kong national security police arrest 2 bookshop owners over alleged seditionHunter Bookstore owners, former district councillor Leticia Wong and local man arrested on suspicion of committing acts with seditious intent1-MIN READ1-MIN14 ListenDanny MokPublished: 1:03am, 25 Jun 2026Updated: 9:59am, 25 Jun 2026Hong Kong national security police have arrested the owners of an independent bookshop for alleged sedition and money laundering.Officers searched Hunter Bookstore in Sham Shui Po on Wednesday and arrested the owners, former district councillor of the now-disbanded Civic Party Leticia Wong Man‑huen, 33, and a 32-year-old local man.They were detained on suspicion of committing acts with seditious intent and laundering money in breach of the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, according to the force.Officers seized a batch of…

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Trump cancels signing of key US housing bill until Save America Act is passed

Donald TrumpWorldUnited States & CanadaTrump cancels signing of key US housing bill until Save America Act is passedThe US president is pushing Republicans to pass a set of controversial voting restrictions, as frustration grows within his own party3-MIN READ3-MIN5 ListenReutersPublished: 11:16pm, 24 Jun 2026Updated: 3:42am, 25 Jun 2026President Donald Trump cancelled his plan to sign a bipartisan affordable housing bill on Wednesday in an effort to pressure his fellow Republicans to pass a long-stalled package of US national voting restrictions that has aggravated party fissures and shown the limits of his power.“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote in a social media post.Some Republicans indicated it may be a largely symbolic gesture:…

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ENG-W vs WI-W Highlights, Women’s T20 World Cup 2026: Henry fifty in vain as England seals semifinal berth

ENG-W vs WI-W: Catch scores, updates, commentary and highlights from the Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 match between England and West Indies at Lord’s on Wednesday.Updated : Jun 25, 2026 02:37 IST , CHENNAI - 2 MINS READ Team Sportstar Comments Follow UsSHARE Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit READ LATER SEE ALL Remove England bowled out West Indies for 38 runs in a crucial league fixture at the Lord’s Cricket Ground. | Photo Credit: Getty Images England bowled out West Indies for 38 runs in a crucial league fixture at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.

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AI was supposed to kill engineering jobs, but new data suggests they’re the most resilient

Whether AI is already replacing jobs is the subject of fierce debate. Tech layoffs hit their highest single month total in years in May, and AI was the most-cited reason, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Software engineering, in theory, is the professional field most vulnerable to automation, given the rapid adoption of AI-powered coding tools. However, researchers at venture firm SignalFire say the hiring data tells a different story. “The rationale given for lots of layoffs is consistently AI, and specifically they’ll say AI with respect to code; they’ll say one engineer could do the job of however many engineers in the past,” said Asher Bantock, SignalFire’s head of research. “What we’re seeing on the ground is a little inconsistent with that.” SignalFire’s analysis, which tracked the careers of millions of employees across more than 80 million companies, …

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AI researchers continue to leave Google for its rivals

In Brief Posted: 2:42 PM PDT · June 24, 2026 Image Credits:TechCrunch Amanda Silberling Lucas Ropek AI researchers continue to leave Google for its rivals Top AI researchers Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel are leaving Google for Anthropic, according to Bloomberg. Per the report, Adler and Pritzel played key roles in the development of Google’s Gemini model.

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The memory chip crunch is paying off for this US company

In Brief Posted: 2:30 PM PDT · June 24, 2026 Image Credits:Jeremy Erickson/Bloomberg / Getty Images Kirsten Korosec The memory chip crunch is paying off for this US company The AI boom has fueled dozens of new startups and minted a new class of billionaires. It has also produced a serious shortage of memory chips — a critical component for compute-hungry AI models — which some predict could persist through 2027.

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New website names and shames companies that still don’t offer passkeys to users

In Brief Posted: 2:04 PM PDT · June 24, 2026 Image Credits:Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket / Getty Images Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai New website names and shames companies that still don’t offer passkeys to users When it comes to securing accounts against hackers, passkeys are now widely considered the gold standard. And yet they are still not offered by one in four major apps and services on the internet, including Instagram, Netflix, and Spotify.

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Companies are scrambling to stop employees from maxing out AI budgets with small tasks

In Brief Posted: 1:09 PM PDT · June 24, 2026 Image Credits:Kenneth Cheung (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Lucas Ropek Companies are scrambling to stop employees from maxing out AI budgets with small tasks The era of tokenmaxxing is over. After the AI industry encouraged companies to max out their AI budgets earlier this year, and some companies even built employee leaderboards to encourage internal AI usage — they are now realizing just how easy it is to spend huge sums of money on AI and get little in return.

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Here’s why Slate changed the battery in its cheap EV truck

Slate, maker of the stripped-down EV pickup truck, found another way to simplify its product: the battery. When the startup revealed its starting price on Wednesday — $24,950 before destination, taxes, and other fees — it also said it had changed its battery strategy, eliminating the optional 240-mile pack but bumping the standard pack from 150 miles to 205. How Slate pulled that off illustrates just how significantly the battery market in the U.S. has changed in the past four years. Initially, the startup planned to use nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cells. The chemistry is widely used in the automotive industry and favored for its energy density, which translates into longer range. But NMC is also expensive, mostly due to high nickel and cobalt prices. More recently, automakers have begun to use another chemistry, lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP). Battery packs that use LFP are less energy…

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Facebook rolls out an AI companion app for creators

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it’s reimagining its Creator Studio tool as a stand-alone AI companion app designed to help creators grow their audiences on the social network. By giving creators access to this AI companion app, Meta is looking to keep creators active on Facebook as it competes for their attention against rivals like TikTok and YouTube. The company also likely hopes that the app will eliminate the need for creators to turn to third-party tools like ChatGPT when brainstorming content ideas and analyzing performance. The new app, which is currently being tested with select creators, will have Facebook’s recently launched AI creator assistant built into it. The assistant provides creators with personalized recommendations based on their content style, performance, audience engagement, and goals.

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Deezer says its new feature lets fans remix songs with artist consent

Global music streaming service Deezer announced on Wednesday the launch of its new feature, “Remix Lab,” which allows fans to creatively remix songs with the consent of the original artists and rights holders. Plus, the company says artists actually get paid for every stream of these remixed tracks.

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Agility Robotics plans to go public via SPAC in a $2.5B deal

In Brief Posted: 9:48 AM PDT · June 24, 2026 Image Credits:Agility Robotics Kirsten Korosec Agility Robotics plans to go public via SPAC in a $2.5B deal Agility Robotics, the humanoid robotics startup that spun out of Oregon State University in 2015, plans to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company Churchill Capital Corp XI in a deal that values the company at roughly $2.5 billion. The transaction is expected to generate more than $620 million in proceeds, including about $200 million from a group of new and existing institutional investors, the company said.

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NTSB launches probe into fatal Texas Tesla crash

In Brief Posted: 9:39 AM PDT · June 24, 2026 Image Credits:CFOTO/Future Publishing / Getty Images Sean O'Kane NTSB launches probe into fatal Texas Tesla crash The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has opened an investigation into a crash that happened over the weekend in Texas, in which a driver slammed into a home in Katy, Texas, killing a resident. The family of that victim, 76-year-old Martha Avila, has also filed a lawsuit against the driver, Michael Butler, and Tesla, alleging negligence.

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Figma adds code layers, support for animations, more AI features in new update

Figma on Wednesday showed off an update that adds a new code layer, support for motion and shaders, and the ability to create custom plug-ins for various tasks using AI. The design platform has been working on bringing code integration into its tool for a while. Last year, it unveiled an AI prompt-based prototyping tool, Figma Make, and has since launched integrations with Claude Code and Codex to improve the hand-off between coding and design.

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